Odo was born in about 878,[1] the son of Abbo, feudal lord of Deols, near Le Mans and his wife Arenberga.

According to the Vita later written by Odo's disciple John, the couple had long been childless, and one Christmas Eve, Abbo prayed to Our Lady to obtain for him the gift of a son.

[7] Odo developed a particular devotion to Mary, under the title “Mother of Mercy", an invocation by which he would address her throughout his life.

Odo would later say that the monks of the monastery of St. Martin of Tours had been spoiled by all the wealth and gifts brought by the pilgrims, and had abandoned the Rule they were required to follow.

He would later tell his monks that the religious at Tours no longer attended nightly Lauds for fear of getting their fine shoes dirty.

One day, in reading the rule of Saint Benedict, he was confounded to see how much his life fell short of the maxims there laid down, and he determined to embrace a monastic state.

The count of Anjou, his patron, refused to consent, and Odo spent almost three years in a cell, with one companion, in the practice of penance and contemplation.

He resigned his canonry, and secretly repaired to the monastery of Beaume, in the diocess of Besançon, where the Abbot Berno admitted him to the habit.

Berno had joined the Benedictine Order at the Abbey of St. Martin in Autun, where Hugh of Anzy le Duc had introduced stricter adherence to the Rule of Saint Benedict.

Immediately following Berno's death, Wido attempted to gain control of Cluny by force, but Pope John X sent a letter to Rudolf, King of the Franks to intervene.

One story recounts the one year, on the feast day of Martin of Tours, Odo saw an old man looking over the unfinished building.

The old man then went to Odo and said that he was St Martin and that if the monks continued to persevere that he would arrange it for the money they needed to come to them.

He encouraged them to return to the original pattern of the Benedictine rule of prayer, manual labor, and community life under the direction of a spiritual father.

It was his usual saying, that no one can be called a monk who is not a true lover, and strict observer of silence, a condition absolutely necessary for interior solitude and the commerce of a soul with God.

The monks would patiently wait for the supply of fish to run out in the hope that he would be forced to give them meat to eat.

[6] Authorized by a privilege of Pope John XI in 931, Odo reformed the monasteries in Aquitaine, northern France, and Italy.

Cluny became the model of monasticism for over a century and transformed the role of piety in European daily life.

The monastery claimed its heritage traced, through Berno and Hugh of Anzy le Duc, all the way back to St Benedict of Nursia.

Odo first came to Rome in the year 936 and took the opportunity to use Alberic II of Spoleto's support to reform and revive monastic life in central Italy.

[6] Odo sent his disciple Baldwin to Monte Cassino to restore it, because it had also been left to lie waste; the nearby Subiaco Abbey also received his influence.

In the North, St Peter's, Ciel d'Oro in Pavia was also brought under the control of one of Odo's disciples.

These monks resisted the rule against flesh meat and Odo's disciple struggled to keep up a constant supply of fish for them to eat.

Alberic fought a war with his stepfather Hugh of Lombardy and Odo was twice called in to act as a mediator between them.

[6] Another story held that one time forty robbers attempted to attack him on the road, but he continued forward singing psalms as usual.

Pope Benedict XVI notes that Odo's austerity as a rigorous reformer tends to obscure a less-obvious trait: a deep, heartfelt kindness.

"He was austere, but above all he was good..."[8] His biographer, John of Salerno, records that Odo was in the habit of asking the children he met along the way to sing, and that he would then give them some small token.

[13] "[T]he energetic yet at the same time lovable medieval abbot, enthusiastic about reform, with incisive action nourished in his monks, as well as in the lay faithful of his time..."[8] Among his writings are: a commentary on the Moralia of Pope Gregory I, a biography of Saint Gerald of Aurillac, three books of Collationes (moral essays, severe and forceful), a few sermons, an epic poem on the Redemption (Occupatio) in several books, three hymns (Rex Christe Martini decus, Martine par apostolis and Martine iam consul poliand),[14] and twelve choral antiphons in honour of Saint Martin of Tours.

A story holds that one time Odo was writing a glossary to the life of St Martin written by Postumianus and Gallus.

Odo then realized that they were suggesting it was preserved because he had written a glossary in it, but he then quickly gave the glory to God and St Martin.